Core wound paper products are in constant use in daily life. Particularly, toilet tissue and paper towels are a staple in home and industry. Such products comprise a roll of the toilet tissue or a roll of paper towels wound in a spiral around a hollow center core. The hollow center core has a volume which is not used until a spindle is inserted into the product for dispensing by the consumer.
To reduce the cost associated with this unused volume, the cores of core wound paper products have been compressed for several years. Such compression reduces, or eliminates, the volume of the core prior to use and thereby decreases the overall volume of the entire core wound paper product. Reducing the volume of the entire core wound paper product favorably affects the price and cost of transportation, storage and shelving for such products.
For example, as early as 1889, U.S. Pat. No. 401,233 issued Apr. 9, 1889 to Wheeler disclosed a flattened roll of toilet paper having an interior reinforcement. The interior reinforcement had incisions to facilitate the insertion of a suspensory device from which the toilet paper was dispensed.
Later, U.S. Pat. No. 1,005,787 issued Oct. 10, 1911 to Sibley disclosed a corrugated core for packages of wound fabric. The package is compressed into a flattened state to occupy less space during transportation and stocking.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 1,316,041 issued Sep. 16, 1919 to Johnson disclosed a flattened roll of toilet tissue having a core of material made with overlapping ends. The Johnson roll was bent from the flattened state into a kidney shape for application onto a dispensing fixture when it was desired to utilize the toilet tissue wound thereon.
When the compressed core wound paper product is ready to be used by the consumer, it must be rerounded to a generally cylindrical shape having a generally circular cross section. Rerounding is often effected as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,388 issued Mar. 20, 1990 to Watanabe. Watanabe discloses applying lateral compressive forces to the sides of the compressed core wound paper product so that rerounding occurs due to crepes and embosses on the paper product itself.
However, with the advent of the volume savings and the cost savings associated with compressing core wound paper products, inconveniences emerged for the end user. Depending upon the materials used for construction of the core, the substrate of the paper product wound thereon, the tension with which the paper product is wound, the compressibility of the paper product, the amount of compression or flattening applied, and other parameters, it may not be convenient to even begin the rerounding process.
Particularly, when it is desired to restore the round shape of the paper product and eliminate the flattened shape used for transportation, storage and shelving, the consumer may be confronted with difficulties. For example, often the core does not return to a circular cross section, but instead remains in an obround cross-section.
The type of compression or flattening applied to the core wound paper product varies from product to product. For example, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,167 issued Jun. 11, 1991 to Dearwester discloses unilaterally compressed core wound paper product. U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,061 issued Aug. 9, 1988 to Watanabe et al. discloses multi-stroke bilaterally compressed paper product. The differences between unilateral and multi-stroke bilateral compression will affect the behavior of the core wound paper product upon rerounding.
Also, the amount of compression or flattening applied to the core wound paper product varies widely between different products. For example, U.K. Patent Application 709,363 published May 19, 1954 in the name of Samson teaches diametrically flattening the cores and core wound paper product. The aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,388 issued to Watanabe teaches flattening the core wound paper product to one half of its original volume or less and maintaining a particular flattened cross section. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,582 issued Jul. 2, 1991 to Dearwester teaches applying unilateral compressive loading sufficient only to reduce the volume of and flatten the cores without substantially flattening the paper product wound thereon. Conversely, the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 1,005,787 issued Oct. 10, 1911 to Sibley discloses a somewhat elastic corrugated core which has an opening after compression is applied.
Clearly the substrate of the paper product, the type (unilateral or bilateral) and amount (whether compressed to a degree or flattened) of compressive loading will also affect the behavior of the core wound paper product upon rerounding. The consumer, who is unlikely to be aware of the substrate of the paper product or the amount and type of compressive loading used in manufacturing, will not know how to accommodate all of these factors when attempting to reround the package.
However, the consumer is presented with still other difficulties and inconveniences when attempting to reround the package. For example, when lateral compressive forces are applied to the product as disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,388 issued to Watanabe, the consumer expects the opposed sides of the flattened or compressed core to expand outwardly and away from each other. Ideally, each half of the core is then oriented concave inwards toward the center of the core and towards the other half.
However, both halves of the core may buckle in the same direction, forming a somewhat crescent shaped cross section. This phenomenon may be referred to as core inversion and occurs when both sides of the core buckle so that the two halves of the core are concave in the same direction.
When core inversion occurs upon rerounding, it is very difficult for the consumer to insert a spindle through the opening in the center of the core. The opening is too small to freely admit the spindle and the opposed halves of the core do not readily expand outwardly to be concave in mutually opposite directions.
However, assuming core inversion does not occur and the package properly rerounds to a generally circular cross section, the consumer still has the step of inserting the spindle through the core of the core wound paper product. Various types of spindles, and dispensers are known in the art.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,819,895 issued Aug. 18, 1931 to Hunt discloses a paper dispenser having a locking tongue with a hook-shaped member. Flattened toilet tissue having a slot is slid onto the dispenser so that the shank of the tongue bears against and engages the toilet tissue.
This teaching suffers from the drawback that the toilet paper does not rotate on the locking tongue and the locking tongue must be permanently mounted to a fixture which is generally not compatible with those commonly found in the homes of today's consumer. Furthermore, toilet tissue and paper towels sold today are not provided with slots and adapting slots to such core wound paper product would require an extra step in the manufacturing process, thereby increasing the cost to the consumer and offsetting any savings recognized through compressing the core wound paper product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,475 issued Aug. 23, 1988 to Kaysserian discloses a container for storing and dispensing a plurality of rolls of stacked toilet tissue. The toilet tissue is inserted through a generally oval-shaped opening and onto a central support rod having a mushroom-shaped free end. This arrangement allows for providing a plurality of rolls of core wound paper product at the same time, while preventing their removal through the oval-shaped opening. However, this arrangement is not compatible with the single dispensing configuration found in most homes and most frequently used in industry. Nor does the oval-shaped opening through which the plurality of core wound paper products is inserted solve the aforementioned problems, difficulties, and inconveniences associated with the step of rerounding.
Other attempts to improve spindles used in dispensing core wound paper products have focused on the ends of the spindles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,029,035 issued Apr. 10, 1962 to Layton discloses a roll supporting construction having an end with a circular recess and a circular bearing disposed therein and which conforms to the shape of the recess. U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,589 issued Apr. 15, 1969 to Jespersen discloses a dispenser which has circular shaped ends smaller in diameter than the central section of the core. The ends are recessed and press fitted into the central section of the core so that when the core wound paper product is exhausted, the core automatically falls from the dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 314,301 issued Feb. 5, 1991 to Cook discloses a toilet tissue roll dispenser having a notch and holes at one end. It is not clear what function, if any, is provided by the notch.
None of the aforementioned spindles or dispensers for core wound paper products eliminate the need for separate steps in rerounding the compressed core wound paper products and inserting a spindle therethrough. One inconvenience to the consumer could be eliminated if these two steps were combined.
From this review of the prior art, it is apparent there exists a need for a device to assist in rerounding a large variety of compressed core wound paper products without presenting undue difficulty or inconvenience to the consumer.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to overcome the problems in the prior art associated with rerounding various types of compressed core wound paper products. It is also an object of this invention to present a spindle which not only assists in rerounding the compressed core wound paper product, but which can also be used by the consumer without requiring substantial additional steps than would occur if the consumer were to use a core wound paper product which was not compressed or flattened. Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide a spindle which can be used not only with compressed core wound paper products, but with conventional dispensers as well.